The Justice Srikrishna committee has at last submitted the long-awaited data-protection bill. The document, officially titled ‘Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 was submitted on 27 July to the IT Ministry for review.

With the increasing push towards Digital India and the digitisation of services via Aadhaar (whether voluntarily or otherwise), India has bee in dire need of a data protection law. The Bill aims to protect the digital rights of Indian citizens and addresses issues such as consent, protecting children’s rights in the digital age and at empowering citizens to fight for their digital rights.

The Bill must also address issues of government overreach, accountability and initiatives like Aadhaar. Though on the Aadhaar front, Justice Srikrishna is quoted by Medianama as saying, “I’m not talking about Aadhaar because it’s sub-judice.”